Hani Hanjour

Hani Hanjour (13 August 1972-11 September 2001) was an al-Qaeda member and one of the 9/11 hijackers, leading the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 77 and its crash into the Pentagon on 11 September 2001.

Biography
Hani Hanjour was born on 13 August 1972 in Ta'if, Saudi Arabia, the son of a food supply businessman. He sought to drop out of school and become a flight attendant, but his brother Abdulrahman helped him focus on his studies and discouraged him from dropping out. In the late 1980s, he headed to Afghanistan with the intention of fighting against the Soviet Union, but the Soviets had already withdrawn by the time that he arrived; he instead worked for a relief agency.

Attempts at education
In 1991, he headed to the United States to study English as a second language at the University of Arizona, and he found an apartment room near the Islamic Center of Tucson for himself to stay in. In February 1992, he returned to Saudi Arabia, as his hopes of becoming an airplane mechanic would put him in a high position back home. He helped his family in farming lemons and dates near Ta'if after returning to Saudi Arabia, having grown homesick, but he was turned down when he applied to Saudi Arabian Airlines due to poor grades. In April 1996 he returned to America to obtain a commercial pilot's license, as the company offered to reconsider hiring him if he did so, and he stayed in Miramar, Florida. In November 1996, he returned home again after receiving poor grades again, but on 16 November 1997 he returned to America again. In 1999, he returned to Saudi Arabia, but they rejected him as a pilot despite having his license.

Radicalization and death
An angry Hanjour read religious texts and listened to cassette tapes of militant Islamist preachers, and he became a radical. Later that year, he decided to go to Afghanistan to be trained as a terrorist by al-Qaeda, telling his family that he was going to the United Arab Emirates to find work. He returned to America in 2000 and planned out the 9/11 attacks there with other hijackers, and he lived in Falls Church, Virginia with other hijackers. Living with Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, they were later joined by Majed Moqed and Ahmed al-Ghamdi on 2 May 2001. Hanjour rented an apartment in Paterson, New Jersey in May 2001, and in mid-2001 he traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he drank alcohol, gambled, and had strippers perform lap dances. On 10 September 2001, he checked into the Marriott Residence Inn in Herndon, Virginia with Hanjour, Mihdhar, and Hazmi, and on 11 September they boarded American Airlines Flight 77 at Washington Dulles International Airport. They hijacked the plane at 8:54 AM, and at 9:37 they crashed the plane into the Pentagon.